(08-11-2020 06:13 PM)RobertLC Wrote:  Human memory is certainly a complex and fascinating topic. Respected studies have shown that our memory is not a linear recording and can quickly become tarnished.

Historian Thomas F. Schwartz, in his article, “Not Even Wrong”: Herndon and His Informants, (Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Vol. 35, Issue 2, 2014), dedicates almost three pages to examine issues related to human memory. He writes, “In short, memory as expressed in individual recollections is much more complicated than historians have heretofore imagined. It is not, by itself, sufficient as a reliable source for documenting the past.” Tim Good also raises concern about human memory on page vii in the preface of his book, We Saw Lincoln Shot, One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts.

An account that is worth noting has nothing to do with Lincoln, but is one for those of us more seasoned citizens who lived through and were old enough to pay attention to the Watergate scandal. John Dean, the White House counsel for Richard Nixon, provided lengthy testimony in congressional hearings that proved to be very damaging for Nixon. People marveled at his remarkable memory. Studies have been done that compared Dean’s recollection to the actual facts that were gleaned from the original White House tapes. Psychologist and author Alan Kennedy wrote this about portions of Dean’s testimony, “More often than not he distorted the gist of a conversation, exaggerating his own role and sometimes even inventing a role for himself where none had existed. In a nutshell, you could not use Dean’s memory of events to recover anything like the truth of what went on. At pretty well all levels, what he remembered was quite manifestly false. People didn’t say what he recalled them saying; people didn’t do what he said they did; and so on.” So, did Dean lie or was his memory so tainted that he honestly testified to what he thought actually happened?

I raise this issue not necessarily for a discussion of the limitations of human memory, although that would be fascinating, but instead, I’m curious as to what members of this forum think about human memory and how we apply it to our study of the past.

Bob

(08-11-2020 06:13 PM)RobertLC Wrote:  Tim Good also raises concern about human memory on page vii in the preface of his book, We Saw Lincoln Shot, One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts.

(08-19-2020 07:54 PM)Donna McCreary Wrote:  A friend of mine recently commented that at the age of 64, there is nothing wrong with his memory. He is able to remember several things that never happened.

(08-19-2020 07:54 PM)Donna McCreary Wrote:  A friend of mine recently commented that at the age of 64, there is nothing wrong with his memory. He is able to remember several things that never happened.

(08-13-2020 03:08 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  

(08-11-2020 06:13 PM)RobertLC Wrote:  Tim Good also raises concern about human memory on page vii in the preface of his book, We Saw Lincoln Shot, One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts.

Bob, I think this is one of my favorite accounts of how Booth escaped from Ford's Theatre. At 10 P.M. on Saturday, February 11th, 1928, Mrs. Nelson Todd, who said she witnessed the assassination, said: (on radio station WOR)

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"Few people know how badly Booth was hurt by his fall. I had read accounts and seen pictures of him hobbling off the stage to make his escape. This is as false as the story that he shouted "Sic Semper Tyrannis."

"Here is what did happen, and I think I am the only person that knows how Booth made his escape. Knowing Booth, it was only natural that my interest was keen enough to attract my attention back to the stage even though I know Lincoln was assassinated. When Booth's spur caught and threw him to the stage he broke his leg in a terrible way, so that the bone actually protruded through his trousers and smeared the stage with blood. Naturally he couldn't move. Laura Keene leaned over and patted his head. Then to my amazement I saw a rope swing out, evidently thrown by some confederates, lasso him and whisk him into the wings. That was the last time I ever saw John Wilkes Booth."